MARK SELBY admitted he went from having a pain in the neck to being a pain in the neck to wife Vikki during the most stressful year of his snooker career.

But after landing his biggest title at the williamhill.com UK Championship on Sunday against Shaun Murphy, Selby is looking to making amends by bringing home the £125,000 winner’s cheque.

At the World Championship in April, Selby was almost a Crucible non-starter and in a first-round clash against Barry Hawkins he could barely move his head due to neck pain and was soundly beaten.

He said: “Even since my neck injury has gone, because I’ve been struggling for confidence, I’ve been going to tournaments and not performing. I’ve been getting down and probably taking it out on Vikki .

“So it’s been tough but I’ve got to take a lot of confidence from this.”

Meanwhile, John Higgins will end 2012 in the world’s top three after retaining third spot in yesterday’s world rankings. Fellow Scot Stephen Maguire is sixth while Graeme Dott dropped to 14th.